The Worst Day in Recent American History
Dylan offers responses to the question "What was the darkest day in American History between the Assassination of Kennedy and the present." The most prominent answer is hardly a surprise coming from the loyal audience that it does--go and see. However, one answer that is missing, and for which I was too lazy to look up the date, and thus did not comment is notably lacking. Such lack, I think is remarkable and ominous.(I tried to respond in his comment box, but AOL is about fifty percent so far in response to java-script stuff--no comment survived, and so I reproduce in part, and elaborate in large part, what I said there.)
The day that I would choose looms large in memory and mind because we have not seen yet the full play of the consequences. That was the day that the full Senate refused to remove the master of malfeasance from office for strictly concerns of convenience. I will admit that I probably emitted a sigh of relief that the whole ordeal was over, but when Clinton was ultimately allowed to retain office, we officially abandoned all principle in favor of expedience. True, the House found him guilty of the crimes with which he was charged, thus he was impeached; however, by not removing him from office, we said, in effect, "Yes, it's true that he is a criminal, but the economy is good, there will be state disruption, and we just don't think that what he did was that bad."
Suborning perjury, perhaps committing perjury himself, and using the office in ways to protect himself and others in their criminal activities, is a serious, very serious offense. We let ourselves down, and the Senate of the time let us all down for not upholding the dignity of the office and demanding that the person in it rise to that dignity.
We, in effect, acknowledged that what is expedient must rule. Principle is meaningless. We moved truly into the world of PoMo government, in which everything is relative and the only thing important is to preserve the status quo or the present power base if such base assures that we can continue to believe that everything is relative.
We have not seen the end of this dire day We have not sen play out the full implications of our repudiation of principles, and God willing, I pray that we never will.
However, this dire day is certainly one that we need to examine more thoroughly for its utterly repugnant sensibility and for what it says about us as a people.
Advent is a pentitential season. As we wait for the coming of the Kingdom and as we look to the Coming of our Savior, let us examine not only our hearts, but also what we permit by our actions. We as a people made possibly the triumph of King Herod (or should I say King Ahab), and for that many of us hold some portion of corporate guilt. It is time that we act on what we say we believe--"Truth is truth. It is absolute and uncompromisable." If so, then we should behave as though we believe what we say.
